Presenting our third annual 30 Under 30, a tally of the brightest stars in 15 different fields under the age of 30. This is the time to be young and ambitious. Never before has youth been such an advantage. These founders and funders, brand builders and do-gooders aren't waiting for a proper bump up the career ladder. Their goals are way bigger -- and perfectly suited to the dynamic, entrepreneurial, and impatient digital world they grew up in. Meet the 450 prodigies reinventing the world right now. Continue »

Trip Adler

An avid surfer and sometime street-busking saxophonist with a Harvard degree in biophysics, Adler is a man of many interests. He thinks readers ought to be able to indulge their own diverse curiosities as well—and be able to "think about what to read, not what to buy," as he says. Scribd, the digital content-sharing platform he cofounded in 2007, is betting big on subscriptions: $8.99 a month for unlimited e-book downloads. It has already partnered with more than 100 publishers for a catalog of more than 100,000 titles and has ambitions that extend well beyond books. "We want to be the world's digital library," he says. Profitable, with revenues in the "tens of millions" and a user base of 80 million, Scribd no longer has to rely on VC funding. "Our challenge now is how to take our profits and reinvest them to continue to grow our revenue," he says.